Twitter Opens Up Self-Serve Ad Platform to 10,000 Small Businesses

February 17, 2012 by (author unknown)

Self-serve is expected to be a cornerstone of Twitter’s revenue growth, though its contribution will be small early on while it looks to scale the number of small businesses using its platform.

Sh*t We Say: Lessons from a Long-Tailed Meme – Part 2

January 31, 2012 by Blake Bowyer

(Part 2? Yeah, check out Part 1.)

In case you missed it, Ron Paul supporters, ASU students, and VFX artists were among those that joined the fray since my last post. The variations continue to proliferate further down the tail, satirizing – and entertaining – more niche audiences. What does this add up to? Segmentation.

While I easily enjoy Sh*t ASU Students Say even though I’m not a Sun Devil – and haven’t even been to the campus – the video resonates better with those who were. Beyond that, the video’s arc is more relatable to students who enrolled in the past 5-10 years and drink socially – perhaps even deeper for students who were in the Greek system and enjoy campus takeout.

The point is, there’s a clear difference in the type of viewer who’s going to watch the video halfway through for a chuckle and a viewer who’s going to share across social networks. Those pearls of info are demographic, psychographic, and behavioristic qualities – in some ways digital has obscured their importance.

As segmented as some brands’ social media programs get these days.

On-platform segmentation

On Facebook you can get granular with ads – age, gender, interest, etc. – but what’s the deepest a brand can go with a non-paid Wall post? Zip code – better than nothing, but hardly ideal. What’s the most specific you can get with a non-promoted tweet? Well, there isn’t any targeting at all. A brand can use hashtags, but hardly a guarantee it reaches the right followers and non-followers. The list goes on.

When considering the lack of earned and owned targeting, should we have been so shocked by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s recent study showing 1.3% of users who Like a Page also engage with it? There are a host of reasons – and it’s not panic time – but a lack of targeted relevance is likely a large factor.

Is there hope? You probably saw the Pinterest infographic shared far and wide yesterday. The standout points are a 429% traffic increase since September and a higher referral rate than Google+. The larger question is how we account for the platform’s explosion – my takeaway is self-segmentation. Users can very specifically choose what content they consume from brands. For example, a user may be more interested in HGTV’s Design Happens Blog board than its Party Planner board – and the user can choose.

Of course, we can’t always expect audiences to do all the work – that’s kind of our job – but content segmentation is likely a contributor to the platform’s growing popularity. This is also why diligent brands should use Google+ to group users and serve-up relevance by the Circle-full.

What are the lessons?

Segment your influencers – While mega-buckets like green and lifestyle are easy defaults, your influencers should be as refined as your audiences – and pitched with the same specificity. This involves additional research, but is worthwhile in the long-run. This principle is emphasized in our and freshly-updated Ogilvy Social Media Engagement Code. We will always work hard to have good reason to connect our brand or program with a particular influencer or fan.

Diligent application of paid - Sometimes paid feels like a dirty word in our idyllic world of social media and word-of-mouth comms, but it’s a huge value-add when used properly. If a brand has a strong, relevant message it feels will resonate with ASU students or VFX artists, paid could be invaluable in getting the value exchange to a receptive audience.

Be targeted in your research - Broad statistics about social media won’t get you far. You may see large trends, but it doesn’t say much about your audiences. Believe it or not, MySpace is still relevant to stand-up comedians and forums are strong in industries like health care. Research + expertise for insight. As quickly as the digital world changes, intelligence must also be refreshed regularly – and with rigor.

As we continue to hear what sh*t all kinds of people say, more lessons about marketing in a digital world will come to the surface. Including when a campaign has run its course. Exhibit A @ 1:29. (It’s still hilarious.)

Are there other lessons you took away from this meme? What niche do you think is underserved in social media?

Facebook report from: http://www.marketingscience.info/.*Image credit: Despair.com. +Inspiration credit: @AlexisPond.

Sh*t We Say: Lessons from a Long-Tailed Meme – Part 1

January 26, 2012 by Blake Bowyer

“It’s an English basement.”

That might not mean much to you, but it probably made you chuckle if you fall into one of the two groups:

1. Current or former D.C. residents
2. Viewers of Sh*t People In D.C. Say

Of course, this video is one of many variations of the Sh*t Girls Say series – which has a cumulative YouTube viewership of 20+ million and growing. You know the premise: Stereotypical expressions from people of a certain ilk, organized by gender, hobby, lifestyle, or geography. There are takes on skiers, hipsters, suburban moms, and even sh*t nobody says (a personal favorite) and the meme’s ’success’ reminds me of basic marketing program goals: generating word-of-mouth, stimulating co-creation, and targeting segmented audiences.

$1,400 for a converted sunroom? Not bad – better than an English basement.

First: Why do we care about sh*t other people say?

As a meme – both intentionally and by accident – these videos satisfy several of the 7 Drivers of Word of Mouth synthesized from Emmanuel Rosen’s work: there’s a good story, people can show their involvement, there is an implicit invitation to participate through their involvement, ’supporters’ can be creative, and, most crucially, there’s a clear value offering – comedy.

The power of these elements is not only clear in the 20+ million video views of the original – and millions more on the variations – but the number of amateur aueters who created their own. An absurdly unscientific calculation using YouTube shows 200+ videos using a basic search – let’s safely presume 50 are duplicates and 50 are spam. Even at 100 and with absolutely no prize, that’s higher participation than most branded video submission challenges get – save Survivor applications and Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl.

What’s the lesson?

This concept – again, presumably by accident – encourages marketers to revisit basics about constructing effective programs to generate word-of-mouth and cultivate co-creation. Here are a few quick ones:

• Establish a proper barrier to entry for a desired output – if you’re inviting the masses, you better make it low.
• Make it real - do a participants’ efforts really matter or is this just a marketing program? The former will help cultivate stronger long-term benefits.
• Allow for creativity – while some of the videos are mocking groups, I would confidently presume that most of them were created by skiers and D.C.-ites themselves.
• Let your co-creators own it – while everyone involved knows this is a marketing effort, no one’s interested in making a 6-minute branded video – nor does anyone want to watch one – so ensure the brand is seen through the lens of its fans, advocates, and consumers, not the opposite.

In Part 2, I’ll explore the concepts of segmentation as it applies to long-tailed messages and why – even if you don’t live in The District – Sh*t People in D.C. Say is still funny.

Why do you think this meme has become so popular? What are the other takeaways do you see that apply to marketers?

Five Key Things to Know About CES

January 12, 2012 by (author unknown)

The Convention Center is for pure technological sensory overload. Unless you’re marketing consumer electronics products or are part of that value chain, it’s not going to affect your job.

Why CMOs Need To Get Real About The Policy Implications Of Big Data

January 10, 2012 by Steve Olenski

Big data. Just those words alone are enough to send a collective shudder up AND down the spine of CMOs the world over.

Affluency: Three Trends to Watch for 2012

January 4, 2012 by (author unknown)

Affluency: In this month’s column, Ipsos Mendelsohn looks at the data it has collected about affluent’s shopping patterns throughout the year, and distills it into three key takeaways to help marketers prepare for 2012 and beyond.

Brands Embrace Google+ in Hopes of Coming Search Boost

December 15, 2011 by (author unknown)

Their worry is that early adopters will reap any search benefits, while others will be buried by those who have collected more +1s.

Study: Only 5% Americans Online Use Location Apps Like Foursquare

December 6, 2011 by (author unknown)

Forrester survey also suggests higher income, male early-adopters may be tiring of the check-in category.

Article: Uneven Campaign Metrics Make Multichannel Advertising More Challenging

December 5, 2011 by (author unknown)

Marketers report difficulty making sense of online metrics

Article: M-Commerce Sales Shoot Up as More Consumers Buy via Mobile

December 1, 2011 by (author unknown)

Sales will nearly double this year and more than quadruple again by 2015

Social Proof Is The New Marketing

November 29, 2011 by (author unknown)

One challenge, which isn’t new, is the battle for consumer attention. If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users? I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web. What is social proof? Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence.

What marketers say about working online: McKinsey Global Survey results

November 29, 2011 by (author unknown)

Marketers agree that digital tools and technologies are valuable, though many of their companies struggle to measure the financial impact and capture customer data. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly >

Topics: Marketing Surveys

Update your Quarterly feed preferences

Are Targeted Ads Worth the Privacy Price?

November 28, 2011 by Tom Davenport

This blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The Future of Retail.

Is the entire marketing profession headed in the wrong direction? My article (co-authored with Leandro Dalle Mule and John Lucker) in HBR’s December-issue spotlight on retailing deals with one tenet of marketing orthodoxy — that customers will respond well to targeted “next best offers” (NBOs). We describe how the best consumer marketers are finally starting to pull together information about the customer, the product or services they might want, and the purchase context — all to make NBOs so precisely targeted that customers pounce.

I don’t question this orthodoxy personally. I am so besieged by junk email, for example, that I almost cried tears of joy the other day when I got a discount offer from one of my favorite restaurants (Selva Grill in Sarasota, which makes a skirt steak to die for). I knew it was just a random hit, but it made me think of the power of NBOs involving products and services I really want. I bought the restaurant discount offer, and I’m guessing that if more NBOs were well-targeted, the wheels of commerce would spin much faster. I’d be willing to sacrifice some privacy for this; in fact, I’ve always subscribed to the Scott McNealy comment: “You have zero privacy anyway — get over it!”

However, some of the amazing NBO capabilities we describe in the article made me uneasy about the privacy implications. Microsoft, for example, has an incredible ability to tailor “offers” for its Bing search engine (the product is free, so Microsoft is just trying to get you to use it) based on a variety of factors — including your location, age, gender, and recent online activity — that it can determine from your cookies and other sources. If you have signed up for Microsoft Passport, the company has even more information about you that allows for targeting the offers even more effectively. I was dazzled by Microsoft’s ability (facilitated by the Infor Interaction Advisor software they use) to instantly compose a targeted email the moment you click on an offer in your inbox; it all takes about 200 milliseconds. Microsoft says it works extremely well to lift conversion rates. And I don’t think that Microsoft abuses personal information. But on reflection, I wonder to what degree customers will tolerate this sort of thing once they know what’s going on.

A recent study of American adults, in fact, suggests that consumers are a lot less enthusiastic about targeted offers than marketers imagine. The title of the report says it all: “Americans Reject Tailored Advertising.” 66% of the respondents said they did not want websites to show them ads tailored to their interests. 49% said they didn’t even want discount offers tailored to their interests. And young people were not much more interested in being targeted than old folks like me. What’s more, when consumers are informed about common ways that marketers gather the data they use to tailor ads, between 73% and 86% say they would not want such advertising.

When I have discussed this study with analytics and marketing people, they’ve professed disbelief. But the survey is pretty well done. And if you’re from outside the US, I’m guessing that your customers are even less desirous of becoming an online bullseye than these Americans were. While respondents in other surveys have not been quite so negative about targeted ads and offers, it is clearly time for marketers and senior executives to take seriously the issue of customer privacy and preferences for targeted ads and offers. You could start, for example, by asking your customers if they really want them!

Delta Takes Off With An Unconventional Approach To Customer Experience

November 21, 2011 by Avi Dan

There are few more challenging jobs in marketing these days than being the top marketer of a major legacy airline.  Years of deteriorating service and horror stories about deplorable customer experiences have branded the airline industry as one of the worst in America.

A Very Mobile Holiday Season

November 18, 2011 by Molli Sullivan

Tis the season of marathon shopping sessions, and even longer mall lines. A trip to the mall can also mean sore feet, less time for family and unappetizing food court offerings. However, with the exponential growth of the smartphone market, brands are creatively leveraging devices to beef up their digital holiday offerings. Translation: holiday gift buying just got more fun, and in some instances, you can skip the mall altogether!

For example, the ultra hip WIRED Store is back this year in New York City’s Times Square – this time, with a a mobile shopping makeover. Aurasma, a tech savvy shopper’s best friend, allows consumers to point, click and purchase some of this year’s hottest tech products, as well as unlock exclusive content on the season’s must-have items, via augmented reality. Aurasma gives WIRED store visitors all the benefits of holiday shopping without the hassle of long lines or heavy shopping bags. Those wishing to purchase the item, simply launch the app, click “Add to Cart” and the product is instantly deposited into the WIRED virtual cart for checkout. **

Another interesting holiday mobile implementation comes from JC Penny’s “Who’s Your Santa” campaign. This year, when JC Penny shoppers make a purchase, they will receive a “Santa Tag” which comes with a customizable QR code. Consumers can scan the code and instantly create a voice message for the recipient to listen to when they open the gift. While you might end up having to visit the mall to make use of this campaign, at least you’ll be adding a tech-forward, fun, personal touch.

Smartphones are the ubiquitous item everyone carries with them and uses to access content multiple times throughout the day. It is refreshing to see brands tapping into our daily mobile behavior and offering us an enhanced shopping experience. What do you think, is the mobile phone turning into a shopper’s best friend?

**Disclosure: Aurasma is an Ogilvy client.

Technology Trends — What They Mean to Marketers

November 8, 2011 by Carolyn Ladd

Forrester has just completed a report (“The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2011, US” by Gina Sverdlov) regarding technology adoption trends for the last five years with predictions for the next five years. The recent survey was fielded in July 2011 and included 64,515 U.S. and Canadian online adults ages 18 to 88. Here are a couple of stats:

When good feedback leaves a bad impression

November 8, 2011 by Audrey Watters

If a teacher is prone to hyperbole — lots of “greats!” and “excellents!” and “A+++” grades — it’s natural for a student to perceive a mere “good” as an undesirable response. According to Panagiotis Ipeirotis, associate professor at New York University, the same perception applies to online reviews.

In a recent interview, Ipeirotis touched on the the negative impact of good-enough reviews and a host of other data-related topics. Highlights from the interview (below) included:

• Sentiment analysis is a commonly used tool for measuring what people are saying about a particular company or brand, but it has issues. “The problem with sentiment analysis,” said Ipeirotis, “is that it tends to be rather generic, and it’s not customized to the context in which people read.” Ipeirotis pointed to Amazon as a good example here, where customer feedback about a merchant that says “good packaging” might initially appear as positive sentiment, but “good” feedback can have a negative effect on sales. “People tend to exaggerate a lot on Amazon. ‘Excellent seller.’ ‘Super-duper service.’ ‘Lightning-fast delivery.’ So when someone says ‘good packaging,’ it’s perceived as, ‘that’s all you’ve got?’” [Discussed at the 0:42 mark.]
• Ipeirotis suggested that people should challenge the initial conclusions they make from data. “Every time that something seems to confirm your intuition too much, I think it’s good to ask for feedback.” [Discussed at 2:24.]
• Ipeirotis has done considerable research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. He described MTurk as “an interesting example of a market that started with the wrong design.” Amazon thought that its cloud-based labor service would be “yet another of its cloud services.” But a market that “involves people who are strategic and responding to incentives,” said Ipeirotis, “is very different than a market for CPUs and so on.” Because Amazon didn’t take this into consideration early on, the service has faced spam and reputation issues. Ipeirotis pointed to the site’s use of anonymity as an example: Anonymity was supposed to protect privacy, but it’s actually hurt some of the people who are good at what they do because anonymity is often associated with spammers. [Discussed at 2:55.]

The full interview is available in the following video:

Strata 2012 — The 2012 Strata Conference, being held Feb. 28-March 1 in Santa Clara, Calif., will offer three full days of hands-on data training and information-rich sessions. Strata brings together the people, tools, and technologies you need to make data work.

Save 20% on registration with the code RADAR20

Some quotes from this interview were edited and condensed for clarity.

Related:

• Thousands of workers are standing by
• Crowdsourcing specific microtasks
• Mechanical Turk best practices
• Big data analytics: From data scientists to business analysts

Starbucks Taps China's Foursquare for Huge Holiday Check-in Campaign

November 8, 2011 by (author unknown)

While Foursquare slowly experiments with near-field communication technologies here in the U.S., one of its Chinese lookalikes is rolling out a massive NFC campaign in eastern China.

Article: Mobile Advertising Goes Mainstream

October 31, 2011 by (author unknown)

Mobile search, display spending surges in response to mobile web adoption

The Social Consumer – Your New Influencer

October 19, 2011 by Gemma Craven

The new era of consumerism is one in which each and every consumer has a powerful voice. It is one that touches brands across the spectrum, from the families of food, beverage and personal care brands within multinational CPGs all the way to modern B2B technology companies who are in turn focusing on the new voice of the consumer and how this affects their lead generation and sales cycles.

As marketers working with social platforms we focus a lot on influencers and building influencer relationships. However this new social consumerism means that we need to turn our attention to looking at the empowered customer as the new powerhouse that must be considered and included in any advocacy program. This does not need to be a huge expensive operation and can start with something as simple as a thank you.

Here follows five easy things any company or brand can do today in taking the first step to growing a new breed of influential and empowered customer advocates, both on and offline:

• Thank your customers. Rewarding your loyalists is not hard, from a simple discount on a repeat purchase to a personalized thank you, which costs nothing aside from effort, it all goes a long way
• Be responsive. According to socialbakers, 95% of Facebook wall posts go unanswered by brands – don’t be in the 95%! Simply responding to your customers can quickly grow advocacy and affinity
• Look at the communities you have around your brand, whether they are owned or earned communities. You can likely identify your brand advocates pretty quickly, and likely they are not paid influencers but quite simply fans.
• Review your numbers. Do you know what percentage of your revenue actually comes from new business, and what comes from repeat buyers? Make sure your experience for your repeat customers is as good as the very first time they came to you.
• Let your YOU come through. The new connected environment means your customers want and need a personal connection. Think about how you can bring the human into your brand, with the easiest way being through your connection in social spaces. This could mean undertaking a review of your brand voice with your team, looking at how you currently come across and how you want to be perceived.

Watch for more content this week from our time at PivotCon in NYC this week, focusing on this new social consumer including exclusive interviews from our panelists at the Ogilvy Brand Breakfast!

What are your quick tips for growing your best customer advocates in social spaces? Tweet me @gemsie with your ideas or comment here.